Saturday, March 7, 2015

Feel the Weather Pillow Book

This is a small one-page book that I made for my 2 month old nephew. I knew I wanted to give him something hand-made, but since he's not old enough for quiet book or quiet mat activities yet I decided to make a little sensory book for him instead! It features different weather scenes in bright colors and offers gentle tactile elements for him to explore. I also added a mirror underneath the sun for an extra activity. The whole book is filled with stuffing to give it a plush, pillowy feel and I also used stuffing in the clouds and added loops of ribbon throughout the scenes. The finished book lays out like a little pillow and will hopefully be perfect for tummy time!

The book itself is made from a long piece of leftover cotton fabric for the outer cover, and a long piece of light blue felt for the inside. After I finished embroidering the weather scenes, I sewed the two pieces right sides together, turned them and filled the book with stuffing. I also top stitched around the border this time to make sure the stuffing doesn't come out. The book stays closed using two velcro dots.

Front Cover

I embroidered my nephew's name with felt onto the fabric and glued a circular piece of flexible mirror to the fabric too. I sewed an orange felt border around the mirror to keep the edges covered. I made the sun by cutting two circles out of yellow felt and several pieces of yellow and orange ribbon. I folded each piece of ribbon in half and glued the ends to the top side of the back piece of felt, so that the ends would be hidden inside the sun. Then, I put the other circle on top and blanket stitched around the entire shape. When I reached the top of the sun, I stitched it to the cover to secure it above the mirror.

Back Cover

I cut a cloud shape out of gray felt, 16 raindrop shapes out of dark blue felt and three strips of dark blue ribbon. For each raindrop, I sandwiched two raindrop shapes around the ribbon and blanket stitched around the entire shape. Then, I glued the top tips of the ribbons to the cover and whip stitched the bottom of the gray cloud over them to hide their starting point. I continued to whip stitch around the gray cloud, but left a small opening to stuff crinkly cellophane material into it before closing it. The storm cloud has a slight crinkly texture and the strips of rain drops are free from the page to touch and play with.

Inside

I cut six curved strips out of rainbow felt colors and stitched each one to the page, starting with the purple. I whip stitched along the bottom edge, then wedged the next color underneath the top before sewing the top of the strip down. I repeated this process until I finished sewing all six colors. I cut two clouds out of white felt and cut several pieces of white ribbon. As I stitched around the cloud, I would place a loop of ribbon and stitch that down as well. Before I finished sewing each cloud, I pushed some stuffing into them to make them slightly puffy.